Week 5 football rewind

Near the halfway point of the season, Marin County is without an unbeaten team after Novato stopped Tam on Saturday.
What the league doesn’t lack, however, are playoff contenders.
Any set of power rankings would show Marin Catholic atop the MCAL, but only San Rafael looks unlikely to at least challenge for an NCS berth.

For more on Marin football, keep reading …Mustangs coach remains hopefulAt 1-4, including a 30-7 loss to Marin Catholic last week, San Marin’s football team appears a long shot to make the North Coast Section playoffs. But coach Dan Hickey remains optimistic that his team has enough ability and fortitude to turn things around.
That effort to shake off the slow start continues Saturday against Novato in a game that Hickey said is close to a must-win for his team. San Marin has qualified for the Division III playoffs the past two seasons though a drop in enrollment has San Marin looking to be part of the Division IV field this season.
“Everything for the playoffs is at stake now,” Hickey said. “We have to win out or be pretty close to it. You know, we are Division IV now, so that counts for something. But still, when you go to overall record, ours isn’t very good so we might not be considered. So we do have to get it rolling.”
Hickey said youth and inexperience on defense has been an issue after graduation hit the unit hard after the 2011 season.
“We knew that it was going to be a task for us this year because we graduated so many last year,” Hickey said. “You know, our defensive ends, who were stellar and our whole linebacking corps with the exception of Danny Blackwell and our DBs are all new. So we knew we’d be replacing a lot of guys and we knew we’d struggle. … But each week they’re getting a little better.”
That included in last weekend’s loss to Marin Catholic.
“I know we went into the helicopter blades this week with (high-powered) Marin Catholic, but our kids played with a lot of heart and they played well,” Hickey said. “We were 0-0 the first quarter and 14-0 – it probably should have been 14-7 – at the half. And obviously, it was a battle of attrition after that because we don’t have as many athletes as Marin Catholic. But we played hard. I was very happy with it even though it was 30-7.”

Novato coach looking for moreNovato became the first team to defeat Tam on Saturday when the Hornets prevailed 14-7, but Novato coach Travis Brackett wasn’t totally satisfied with what he saw from his players.
“I think we took a step back a little bit,” Brackett said. “I think we made some costly mistakes. Now, part of those mistakes we were forced into by Tam. Tam did a great job and I’m not trying to take anything away from them because they did a lot of nice things.
“But, you know, you break a 75-yard run and you fumble it without even getting touched or it’s fourth-and-one and you false start. Those things … I just really want to play a nice, clean game. That’s all I want.”
The coach said he sees progress toward being the team he wants to be — if the Hornets can stay focused.
“I think we’re getting there, but when you start to get to midseason, the mistakes hurt,” Brackett said. “You can’t keep coming up with excuses for mental mistakes. At some point it becomes a lack of focus, so we’ve just got to get better at being focused all game and just playing our game.
“Do I like where we’re at right now? I think we can get better and I think everyone wants to get better. But I’d just like to see us really play a sound football game from start to finish.”

TL coach sees progress
With his team sporting a 4-1 record, Terra Linda coach Damon Keeve sees many more positives than negatives with his team as it prepares to face Justin-Siena on Friday.
“I’m very happy with the way the guys are playing except for that game against Tam,” Keeve said, alluding to the Trojans’ lone loss. “You know, we’re not De La Salle so we don’t expect that we’re going to necessarily win every game. But we just played so badly against Tam.
“But the kids played a lot better (on Saturday) against Drake and we’ll be building on that. But we don’t have a whole lot of winning tradition at Terra Linda in recent years so we’re just trying to get into some kind of good groove where were progressing forward. We wanted to win more games this year than we won last year. We’ve done that, so we’re making progress.”

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In his search for a more consistent PAT kicker, Keeve has turned to Jack Meyers, who steps in for Easton English. English continues to handle kickoff duties.
“He’s got a great leg, but getting it between those two (goal)posts …” Keeve, chuckling, said of English. “So we went with Jack Meyers. He doesn’t kick it as far, but he’s a little steadier.”

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